Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night

While Zane had been dealing with a sort of existential crisis throughout the previous night, as well as his first encounter with death herself within his dreams. Madison had consumed the horde king's blood crystal prior to falling asleep.

The time to process the crystal was a relatively short and yet it was a painful process. However, Madison had enough experience with the state of corruption that she could now sleep through it without incident. And when she awoke in the morning, she found a peculiar message awaiting her from the system.

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[The Blood Crystal of a Tier I Horde King has been consumed…]

[+1,000 XP]

[Generating New Skill]

[Congratulations! You have unlocked the skill Defy Agony!]

[Defy Agony: Active: Defensive Skill]

[Tier I]

[Rare Skill]

[Cast Time: Instant]

[Duration: 20 Seconds]

[Cooldown: 30 seconds]

[Description: For 20 seconds, you gain an additional 90 health, an additional 20 armor, and you take 1 less damage per attack received.]

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Considering that Madison was running a tank build as her primary means of fighting, this was an enormous boost to her capabilities. And she was very excited about this new skill of hers.

She quickly rose out of bed, only to realize that it was five in the morning, and everyone else would still be asleep. And because of this, she sighed heavily before lying back down in her bed, and trying her best to go back to the realm of dreams.

---

Hours passed, and Madison was too excited to fall back to sleep. Making it a slow and agonizing wait until everyone else woke up. And sure enough, at the proper time, being nine in the morning, everyone was up.

However, rather than immediately ask the young woman about her new skill, they instead forced their way into Zane's room to see why the man had not awakened. There was a brief state of panic as they realized the man wasn't breathing, nor did he have a heartbeat, until he opened his eyes and glared at them all for ruining his beauty sleep.

After a light scolding, the women collectively sighed in relief, before withdrawing from Zane's room, allowing the man to get some extra rest. After all, with his recent transformation, it was no wonder that he would want to sleep as long as possible, so that he could avoid the grim reality that was his current situation.

And once the women had all returned to their rooms and properly prepared themselves for the day, they met up in the mess hall of the bunker complex, where they prepared a large and healthy breakfast.

Over which, Madison finally could not keep her excitement contained, and blurted out her thoughts.

"So I got a new skill! And it's pretty sweet. Do you guys want to know what it is?"

Madison's excitement was to be understood, but the level of energy she was espousing was not exactly consistent with the mood of the room. After all, everyone else was deeply concerned about Zane and his recent transformation.

There were so many unknown consequences that could result from such a thing that none of them really knew what to do about it. However, Olivia forced a smile, seeing this as a good idea to shift everyone's minds from Zane's circumstances to something less heavy. She spoke to Madison with a warm tone in her voice.

"Sure Maddie, we would love to hear all about your new skill."

Madison then went on a long-winded rant about her new skill, how she would employ it in her set of tactics while on the battlefield, and how it complimented her previous skill, as well as her archetype perfectly.

Which seemed to be a common theme among Zane's party. It was impossible to know if this was purposeful on the part of the system, or just random luck. Regardless, the women shifted from their somber states to one of more excitement. Giggling among themselves as they talked about Madison's new skill.

Eventually, Zane dragged his ass out of bed and entered the mess hall. His hair was in a sorry state from all the tossing and turning he had done in his sleep. And if he had actually been capable of being physically tired, he would most certainly have bags under his eyes.

Despite this, he did not appear the least bit depressed, unlike what the women by his side thought he would. Rather, despite not being a morning person, there was a slightly chipper attitude to the man as he poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down at the table, where Maya instantly climbed into his lap, having seemingly run into the room out of nowhere the moment Zane revealed himself.

Olivia reached over, trying to greet Maya properly with a pinch of her cheek, when she nimbly dodged the attempt, and instead clung to Zane, all while staring at Olivia as if her action was simply inexcusable.

Prompting the mature silver haired beauty to crack a joke at Zane's expense.

"If I didn't know any better, I would say little maya is deeply in love with you, Zane….. Are you sure you're not one of those kinds?"

Zane looked at Olivia with disgust. For a multitude of reasons. Not only did he abhor such people, but this was also his mother they were talking about. Because of this, he made a short and stern remark before returning to his coffee.

"That's disgusting…"

Maya's eyes narrowed towards Olivia in a glower, as if she too had taken offense to the off-handed remark. But this only made Olivia even more endeared to the young girl, who was in reality death itself.

Once more, prompting the woman to make yet another inappropriate joke about Zane's relationship with Maya.

"I think you both make an adorable couple… Don't you guys think?"

It was obvious to the other women that Olivia was lightheartedly teasing Zane as a way to make him not think about his physical transformation into a member of the Walking Dead. An attempt that she conveyed silently with her eyes alone towards the others. Causing them to all join her in agreement.

"Absolutely! You two are adorable together…"

Elena said with a playful smile on her face shortly before the others all joined in with similar remarks. Ultimately, Zane and Maya looked at one another and sighed before making the same exact gesture at the same time. Which was a facepalm.

The exact sequence of events that lead to this, as well as the action itself, caused all the women to break out into laughter at the sight. Forcing Zane to remain quiet while thinking about how he would get them back for this.